Tom saw the red steam train again.
This time the Ministry had sent two cars specifically to take the Weasleys to King's Cross along with Harry, Tom, and Hermione.
"Get on," Tom said, standing in front of the compartment door and gesturing for Hermione to follow. But Hermione didn't move; instead, she pointed a little further down. Tom looked in the direction she was pointing and saw Percy talking to a curly-haired girl. She was a girl from the same house as Tom and Hermione, named Penelope, and Percy's badge gleamed on his chest as he spoke to her.
"I didn't think Percy would fall in love."
"They got together last year."
Hermione smiled and boarded the train after witnessing the little show.
By then, most of the compartments were full. Tom was trying to share a compartment with Fred and Jordan when Harry caught up with him from behind, hoping to talk to him and Hermione privately.
If they wanted to talk, they had to find an empty compartment, and Harry and Ron searched the corridors together, but all the compartments on the train were full. They searched unsuccessfully but bumped into Neville Longbottom and brought him along.
Finally, they chose the last compartment on the train, where there was only one adult sleeping.
It was rare to see an adult on the Hogwarts Express. Since it was a special train for students, Tom had never seen any adults on the train, except for the driver and the witch selling food.
Perhaps that's why no one chose to sit in the last compartment. Some people liked sitting in the last compartment. The end of the train or subway was a good place to be—clean, away from strangers, and not crowded when getting off.
Once inside the compartment, Tom and the others noticed that the stranger wasn't in the best condition. He looked tired and sickly, and the robe he wore was torn and tattered, although clean, it had been patched up in several places. Facially, he wasn't too old, but his light brown hair was already slightly gray.
"Is that...?" Ron whispered.
Tom didn't say anything; he simply pointed to the luggage rack above the man's head, where there was a battered suitcase with the words [R. J. Lupin] stamped in one corner.
"This year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Harry said his name softly. "I hope this time the teacher won't cause any problems."
After Harry mentioned Lupin's name, the bulging bag in Ron's pocket suddenly trembled, and Scabbers inside it squirmed vigorously.
Ron grumbled, "I think You-Know-Who's curse is real. Our first-year teacher was possessed by You-Know-Who, the second-year teacher was a fraud and got replaced by the victim's family. I wonder what secrets this year's teacher will hide."
Several people present fell silent.
Lupin: ...
As a werewolf who has been wandering since childhood, Lupin is very vigilant—to exaggerate, he even sleeps with one eye open and one eye closed. The sound of the few people entering had awakened him, but he had only been pretending to sleep to avoid embarrassment.
When he heard the comments from the young wizards, he was momentarily speechless—they had almost stumbled upon his greatest secret by accident.
Lupin was a very skilled wizard, but he had another identity: he was a werewolf. He faced discrimination and couldn't hold a job for long because every full moon he transformed and made so much noise that it was hard to hide from others. If Dumbledore hadn't offered him a job, Lupin wouldn't have known what to do.
The immediate reason for Dumbledore's help was the invention of the Wolfsbane potion.
Harry and the others had a few words of discussion and then sat in the farthest seat from Lupin.
Once everyone was seated, Harry told them what he had overheard the previous night and what Mr. Weasley had told him just before getting in the car. They were all taken aback; no one had expected Sirius to come for Harry.
It was a great topic of conversation, and the group started talking about Black and Azkaban, and from Azkaban to the two wizarding wars. During this time, a gift that Ron had given Harry for his birthday over the summer got damaged, and Ron planned to take it to Hogsmeade to get it repaired. So naturally, the conversation revolved around Hogsmeade.
By noon, everyone was getting hungry, so Tom urged Ron to contribute the pastrami sandwiches he had in his bag, and then showed them how to use the fire spell to heat the food.
The flame-grilled sandwich tasted even better, with the aroma of the meat brought out and the solidified sauce turning liquid between the muscles, combined with the crispy slices of toasted bread on the outside, making it juicy and crunchy on the inside. What's more, Mrs. Weasley didn't include fresh lettuce in the sandwich; instead, she used pickles and sauerkraut, which didn't spoil the taste when heated but utilized their acidity to cut through the fat.
"Phew-phew-phew," Ron took a big bite of the sandwich, exhaling white steam as he burned his mouth. "I didn't realize these sandwiches were so good."
"Because you used to eat them cold. Everything tastes different when it's cold, like fried chicken, cold and hot are two different flavors."
While they ate, the compartment door was flung open, and Draco Malfoy appeared in the doorway with his two lackeys, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"Hey, let's see... Harry Breaker, Ron Wesley, Neville Longbottom, tsk tsk tsk, and Yodel and Granger, birds of a feather really do flock together. I didn't think you'd all be crammed in the same compartment." Malfoy leaned against the compartment door, sneering, and said in his lazy, drawn-out tone, "Five in a carriage, but only three have parents-."
There was a blinding flash of red light, and Malfoy was sent flying backward, falling unconscious to the floor. Tom retracted his wand.
"It's been two years, and this guy still hasn't made any progress." Tom looked at Malfoy, sprawled in a mess, with a look of disgust on his face. "Are you staying here to continue being my target?"
He gave a cold glance to Crabbe and Goyle, frightening them into picking up Malfoy and preparing to leave.
"Halt!"
As they tried to flee the scene, the voice that had terrified them resurfaced from behind them.
"You have bad breath, brush your teeth!" Tom pointed at Malfoy's mouth, and immediately a large white foam came out of it. Then Tom told Crabbe and Goyle.
"Get out!"
The two felt so relieved that they scrambled out of the compartment, rolling and crawling.